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TechnographSex changes, alimony, and the true meaning of progress
By Jon Monteith
Posted: 4/2/07 Section: Opinion Columns
The media often romanticizes the gay community as a decadent subculture to which most of us cannot relate, but it's a cakewalk in contrast to the sideshow status of transgender people.
Rather than treat transsexuals as ordinary people who simply do not identify with the gender assigned to them at birth, we often feel compelled to focus on the tragic or comedic to help us navigate through the awkwardness. Think "Boys Don't Cry" - a film dealing with the real-life murder of Brandon Teena, a young transgender man - or the heartwarming quirkiness of Felicity Huffman's character in "Transamerica."
It should come as no surprise then that our sluggishness in dealing with gender identity as a serious issue has led to a confused state of affairs in the arenas of law and public policy. One of the latest examples is last week's ruling by a Florida judge that a woman's sex change operation does not free her ex-husband from his obligation to pay alimony.
Lawyers for Lawrence Roach, 48, had argued that his 55-year-old ex-wife's decision to undergo gender reassignment surgery and change her name from Julia to Julio Roberto Silverwolf rendered their 2004 divorce agreement null and void. "It's illegal for a man to marry a man and it should likewise be illegal for a man to pay alimony to a man," said John McGuire, one of Roach's attorneys.
Circuit Judge Jack R. St. Arnold declared that since Florida courts have ruled that sex-change surgery does not legally change a person's birth gender, Roach technically is not paying alimony to a man. He wrote that the message of appellate courts has been, "You are what you are when you are born."
Is this ruling simultaneously progressive and conservative? Silverwolf's attorney, Gregory Nevins, argued that the language of the divorce decree is clear and firm: Roach agreed to pay alimony until his ex-wife dies or remarries, and neither of those things has happened. But this was not the basis of Judge St. Arnold's ruling; his decision appears to be focused on the argument that according to state law, Silverwolf is still a woman.
Rather than treat transsexuals as ordinary people who simply do not identify with the gender assigned to them at birth, we often feel compelled to focus on the tragic or comedic to help us navigate through the awkwardness. Think "Boys Don't Cry" - a film dealing with the real-life murder of Brandon Teena, a young transgender man - or the heartwarming quirkiness of Felicity Huffman's character in "Transamerica."
It should come as no surprise then that our sluggishness in dealing with gender identity as a serious issue has led to a confused state of affairs in the arenas of law and public policy. One of the latest examples is last week's ruling by a Florida judge that a woman's sex change operation does not free her ex-husband from his obligation to pay alimony.
Lawyers for Lawrence Roach, 48, had argued that his 55-year-old ex-wife's decision to undergo gender reassignment surgery and change her name from Julia to Julio Roberto Silverwolf rendered their 2004 divorce agreement null and void. "It's illegal for a man to marry a man and it should likewise be illegal for a man to pay alimony to a man," said John McGuire, one of Roach's attorneys.
Circuit Judge Jack R. St. Arnold declared that since Florida courts have ruled that sex-change surgery does not legally change a person's birth gender, Roach technically is not paying alimony to a man. He wrote that the message of appellate courts has been, "You are what you are when you are born."
Is this ruling simultaneously progressive and conservative? Silverwolf's attorney, Gregory Nevins, argued that the language of the divorce decree is clear and firm: Roach agreed to pay alimony until his ex-wife dies or remarries, and neither of those things has happened. But this was not the basis of Judge St. Arnold's ruling; his decision appears to be focused on the argument that according to state law, Silverwolf is still a woman.
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Viewing Comments 1 - 4 of 8
eric
posted 4/02/07 @ 7:33 AM CST
Transgender people should be treated with respect and given the same opportunities as everyone else. I believe however that you have bought the usual "bundle of goods" when you state that transgender is a normal just like everyone else condition. (Continued…)
Mak
posted 4/02/07 @ 12:03 PM CST
Mak thanks for your serious and mannerly reply. I looked however for your facts and didnt find any . As we both know and as I made clear, this is a gray area . (Continued…)
eric
posted 4/02/07 @ 12:21 PM CST
MAk, I will speak directly to you and probably for the last time as I see the discussion deteriorating to a point that it is a waste of time. I am a LCSW and my name is Eric. (Continued…)
Sandra
posted 4/03/07 @ 6:56 AM CST
This issue seems difficult, but if you simply reverse the sex of each party - and their life paths since divorce, it would all clear up. So - imagine that the divorced husband went through a sex change, and is now petitioning the court to be relieved of alimony because he is no longer a he, but a she, and Florida does not recognize same sex marriage. (Continued…)
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